Okay, beer sales are flat. The incredible growth in the craft beer business couldn't go on forever. The American beer conglomerates, basically Anheuser-Busch and Miller-Coors, have been shrinking in share to beers with flavor. Who is winning in this battle? It appears wine.
For the first half of 2018 craft beer sales are up less than two percent. Yes, that's still up, but not nearly the growth as seen in previous years. The big boys (A-B, etc.) are down over two percent. They have been steadily losing share for awhile. For the larger craft beer companies Stone and Dogfish Head have seen double-digit growth while New Belgium and Deschutes have losses. There are over 6,000 breweries in the country now so expect some fallout from this slowdown in growth.
Fifteen years ago beer made up 54% of alcohol sales, wine 30%. Last year beer was 46%, wine 37%.
On a related note beer is now popular with UK seagulls. Drunken birds
Info from www.foodandwine.com
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